The Review

All posts, comments andstatements made on IR are those of the authors only. Any disputes must be addressed to the writers, who are solely responsible for their posts, comments and statements. We reserve the right to deny or remove comments. Content may not be used without permission of the author.

Monday, November 11, 2013

Thorner: Obama's Executive Orders Reek of More Government Power, Money

By Nancy Thorner -

It is possible that President Obama was never advised that governing by Executive Order is not the wisest thing to do? It's definitely not the panacea he may think it is! According to Princeton University professor Julian Zelizer, who teaches history and public affairs:

Administrative actions don't have the same kind of impact in defining a president as big legislative accomplishments and they are more susceptible to being overturned. The next president can change them. That's always the problem.

Noted recently in Business Insider, because of Obama's limited ability to achieve his policy goals through legislation [brought about by his own belligerent attitude], he very well may increase his use of executive power on three of his legislative agenda priorities: 1) the farm bill, 2) immigration reform, and 3) a more lasting budget deal.

In an Executive Order issued on Friday, November 1st, President Obama appeared to be seeking a chance to obtain a climate legacy as he faces the grim reality that much of his agenda is seemingly falling apart in Congress? Obama lost on gun legislation earlier in the year. There is a perception that immigration reform is on life support. To top off Obama's obvious frustration over his elusive, floundering agenda, what was to be his signature first-term achievement -- Obamacare -- suffered a disastrous roll out. The promise of having the site up and running by Nov. 30th sounds like a pie-in-the-sky dream.

It was through the stroke of a pen that President Obama issued his latest executive order with its goal to prepare the U.S for the impacts of climate change. Not unexpectedly there has been a mainstream media blackout since the mandate was signed and sealed on November 1st, insuring that Obama's continued and blatant disregard of the division of power among three set branches of government has resulted in yet another under-the-radar abduction of control by Obama. This takeover concerns our nation's climate change policy. While the lack of concern by the mainstream media and others is predictable, inexcusable is why Congress is no where to be found with this latest usurpation by the President of their power?

Obama's November 1st executive order builds on the Climate Action Plan unveiled in June, whose centerpiece was to be the application of new regulations to power plants.

Obama's November mandate goes even further by citing facts from the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), which basically amounts to a rubber stamp of the highly questionable finding of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCCP).

The impact of climate change -- including an increase in prolonged periods of excessively high temperatures, more heavy downpours, an increase in wildfires, more severe droughts, permafrost thawing, ocean acidification, and sea-level rise -- are already affecting communities, natural resources, ecosystems, economics, and public health across the Nation. These impacts are often most significant for communities that already ace economic or health-related challenges, and for species and habitats that are already facing other pressures.

New rules for power plants regulations mandate that CO2 emission from new coal-fired power plants are to be no more than 1,100 pounds of CO2 per megawatt hours of electricity produced. The most efficient plant produces about 1,800 pounds.

In common layman language, the mandated rules would require a 40% reduction of CO2 emissions below that of the most efficient coal-fired plants, this despite the absence of surface warming in the past sixteen years and how climate models consistently overestimate global warming. For all practical purposes, the new CO2 emissions rules would effectively prohibit the construction of new coal-fired power plants.

Also mandated by Obama's Executive Order was the establishment of a volunteer "Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience" as a venue for suggesting ways in which the federal government can help communities face "the impacts of climate change," including bracing for longer heat waves, heavier downpours, more severe wildfires and worse droughts.

This task force, to be composed of governors and mayor, must report to the White House within a year to suggest ways the government can best "remove barriers, create incentives and otherwise modernize federal programs to encourage investments, practices and partnerships that facilitate increased resistance to climate impacts, including those associated with extreme weather."

Recommended suggestions will more than likely include infrastructure projects like bridges and measures to manage floor control. Such projects, however, do come with a hefty price tag, a tall order as no new federal funds were offered to support the task force.

Those who are tasked with carrying out Obama's Executive Order are EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, both dedicated members of Obama's green team. McCarthy and Moniz are powerful advocates and defenders of the premise held by those who promote climate change action, "that the artificially contrived climate science debate has ended."

Gina McCarthy and Ernest Moniz will be making a series of speeches and media appearances to support and to promote what could provide the basis for a second-term climate legacy for Obama.

But things aren't full steam ahead for McCarthy or Moniz in that a Pew Research Center poll conducted in mid-October shows that just 44% say believe that human activity causes global warming. They will have lots of convincing to do on the trail.

As is so often the case, much in the same way Obamacare and the Common Core Curriculum are being sold to the public, executive orders are spun in a way to have the pubic believe that the government knows what is best for us. Here within lies the crux of the problem of Obama's Executive Order on Climate Change: It's government grabbing for control which further involves following the money.

As reported by Fox News on November 1st in a story aired about Obama's Climate Change mandate:

The federal government will control all of the purse strings They will make certain that they get their piece of the pie, grabbing more taxes and funds to apply where and to whomever they please. They will use all of the buzzwords platitudes necessary to lull their acolytes while lining their pockets and those of their cronies. All the while creating a nation devoid of states' rights.

It goes without saying that the climate change mandate will result in crippling the economy and the economic well-being of the American people, all under the false and misguided premise that this nation and its people must be prepared for and made ready for what is only a perceived future climate change without scientific evidence or backing to merit the enactment of what would amount to extreme pain without gain!

Part 2: Renowned scientists associated with The Heartland Institute bump heads with environmentalists at Chicago's EPA listening tour, as the EPA prepares to draft new regulations to regulate greenhouse gases under the 40-year-old federal Clean Air Act.

Comments

Thorner: Obama's Executive Orders Reek of More Government Power, Money

By Nancy Thorner -

It is possible that President Obama was never advised that governing by Executive Order is not the wisest thing to do? It's definitely not the panacea he may think it is! According to Princeton University professor Julian Zelizer, who teaches history and public affairs:

Administrative actions don't have the same kind of impact in defining a president as big legislative accomplishments and they are more susceptible to being overturned. The next president can change them. That's always the problem.

Noted recently in Business Insider, because of Obama's limited ability to achieve his policy goals through legislation [brought about by his own belligerent attitude], he very well may increase his use of executive power on three of his legislative agenda priorities: 1) the farm bill, 2) immigration reform, and 3) a more lasting budget deal.